Rampage Top 3 Runs

Insanity in Virgin

October 15th, 2013

It was a Rampage that exceeded expectations but it could have been legendary. With Kyle Strait leading into the second round you knew his buddy Cam Zink would step up his final run after being bounced down to 5th. And maybe Kelly McGarry had more to say as well. The wind and those who make the final call had other ideas and riders like Andreu, Tyler McCaul and Brendan Fairclough had their second run scores scratched.

If you missed it live you can see it all here. For the rest of you check the runs that landed these three on the podium.

Cam Zink. Insane. Third place.

Kelly McGarry. Bonkers. Good for second.

Kyle Strait. Ridiculous. Top Step.

After seeing the top three would you have scored them differently?

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While I think those are all podium runs and I can’t fault the judging, I really wish Andreu Lacondeguy was on the podium with his run. The speed up top and the hugeness of that superman deserved podium, bigtime.

Mordax

Wish T Mac would have made it. All natural lines FTW

Nelson1111

When you think about the times when this sport has moved to the next level, I would say this competition last weekend would be one of those. Game Changer with respect to the level of riding. And when you describe some of the riding, you’ll probably mention Cam or Kelly’s run. Sure Kyle had a great run – but it wasn’t really a game changer for me so I don’t see why he’d be first. Didn’t he win in 2004 with a suicide no-hander (be it smaller)? And the top part of his run – very similar to Cam’s. And the bottom part – ohhh, a couple straight jumps (little tail whip on one), things any competitor can do in their sleep. Cam’s run – ok, it’s not a best jump competition, and the bottom half was very mellow (could you focus after that jump?). I bet if he’d done a second run he would have ripped the lower half – as he already secured a safe first run. So, based on his one run, ok, maybe not 1st. Kelly on the other hand… I can’t say whether his or Cam’s flip would be technically more difficult or dangerous. But Kelly also risked a corked flip at the top (see what tricking early on cost Semenuk), and then risked it all again with a flip at the bottom. How that doesn’t beat Kyle, you got me. I know, I wasn’t there, etc. etc., but sounds like Kelly was penalized because he went a bit off line at the very bottom. Crap, isn’t this supposed to be Freeride – I didn’t think the judges would be as critical as diving or figure skating judges (oh, his knee wasn’t perfectly bent at 90 degrees there). I think the public vote got it right on Kelly, but hat’s off to Cam too – both bringing the sport to a new (freakin’ dangerous) level.

jadavis

Strait’s run was more technical than McGarry’s. Sure, he didn’t trick a lot, but his riding was super smooth and he never slipped up. Zink had the same upper section as Strait in his line, it just wasn’t executed as smoothly and he didn’t really hit anything lower down. Rampage isn’t just about a big trick or two, so taking a well traveled ridge and hitting the same features as everyone else but flipping them isn’t going to get you as far as dropping strait in and still going huge. Go back and look at how smooth McGarry’s ridge was in comparison to Strait’s line. He got penalized because it just wasn’t as gnarly.